The invention relates to a method for splitting up a honeycomb panel, which comprises a sheet of honeycomb material with a cover layer on both sides. The invention also relates to a thus obtained separator and to a separator for abrasive sheets.
Pieces of honeycomb panel are useful for many purposes and are, for instance, used in the form of separators in the glass sheet industry.
When producing sheets of glass the glass leaves the glass melting furnace as a continuous band, which is cut into sheets, after which the sheets are placed upright against each other. The sheets are, for example, 3 meters high and 6 meters wide. In order to transport a number of sheets simultaneously, a separator is disposed every 8 to 10 sheets, so that there is a gap between each set of glass sheets. Known separators are approximately 25 mm in thickness. The known separators are made of paper honeycomb material with a cardboard cover layer on both sides in order to obtain sufficient strength without weight and costs being high.
The separators are automatically laid on a sheet of glass after it has been cut off, but prior to placing upright. To prevent the separators from sliding, they are provided at one end with a thickening, called a nose in the trade, which hooks behind the upper edge of the glass sheet when placing it in an upright position. Because there is still the risk that when handling the sheet of glass a separator will shift and/or fall to the ground, the result being that the production process is disturbed, the separator can be provided with connecting means such as one or more suction cups. During automatic placing of the separator, it is arranged on the sheet of glass with some pressure, in order to detachably adhere to the sheet of glass. A nose on the separator is then not always necessary.
With separators without connecting means both cover layers of the separator naturally come into contact with the sheets of glass, but also with a separator with suction cups, which are for the greater part sunk in the separator, the suction cups are pressed in so far that the cover layer of the side in which they are arranged also comes into contact with the sheet of glass.
It is a disadvantage with the known separator that when removing the separator from the sheet of glass again after is use, the edges of the separators in most cases leave traces of paper or glue of the honeycomb material, the cover layer or the glue with which these parts were glued together, on the sheet of glass. This is brought about because the honeycomb panel from which the separators are made is split up by sawing or by cutting it into strips, When sawing with a straight knife with a serrated cutting edge an up and down movement is made, as a result of which a frayed edge is formed on the separator, which leaves traces on the sheet of glass. When cutting, a rotating circular knife is pulled through the sheet of honeycomb material which pushes the cover layer somewhat outward on the side where it leaves the sheet, as a result of which this edge easily leaves traces on the sheet of glass. The presence of traces on a sheet of glass is undesirable if the sheet of glass has to, for example, undergo a surface treatment or has to be processed into panes of double glazing.